I suspect all accents are hybrids - they changed as people moved around and mixed. People living in Oxford a century ago sounded more like people who live in Somerset today - check out the recordings at the British Library.
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LIVER AND BACON WITH OR WITHOUT ONIONS - THE AMBROSIA OF THE GODS
- Thread starter Bob Spiers
- Start date
canadianbeth
LostCousins Star
A few years ago, when I started watching Doctor Who, David Tennant was the current Doctor. Not knowing anything about any of the Doctors, past or present, I just assumed he was English. Imagine my astonishment when I was watching a Doctor Who special and he came out with a very Scottish accent. Of course, I had to Google him to see if he was really a Scot.
I have only heard two people from Sweden speak and they both definitely have an accent. Niklas Edin and Anna Hasselborg are curlers and have been to Canada many times; in fact, they are both here now for a bonspiel starting next week. They, being top curlers, are often interviewed.
Bryman
LostCousins Megastar
Many years ago, even decades, and before I was married, I was sent to New York to help develop a software package. I met up with a group of American females of a similar age to me from North Manhattan and they kept asking me to keep talking - about anything! They loved my British accent which I thought I did not have as I had been brought up living on the outskirts of South London.
Don't try to copy an American accent if you are British. The sound of your native tongue can be much admired where it is not often heard.
I have not had the same success in NZ but perhaps age has something to do with that.
A
At home in NZ
Guest
My partner and I can almost always pick up English accents, not necessarily exact region but often near enough. There are varieties of the South African accent, one of which can sound British but there are some words or maybe the pronunciation of a vowel which will always give it away.
Sometimes it's easy to tell the difference between the American and Canadian accents, especially with the way the Canadians pronounce house, about and round.
Margery
LostCousins Member
My very Australian grandson is a student at an American college and apparently his accent is a centre of interest also. He is involved with a reading programme for children and I noticed on a recent Youtube video that after four years he has maintained his Aussie accent, the only difference was the pronunciation of zeebra for zebra!
Yes, I can usually pick it. What about the difference between Northern Ireland and the Republic?
A
At home in NZ
Guest
I'm stumped on that one. I can't believe I am admitting to this but I have been know to mistake a Scottish accent for Irish and vice versa.
canadianbeth
LostCousins Star
I am curious as to just how you think we pronounce those words.
A
At home in NZ
Guest
it's hard to put into words exactly how, something like hoose, roond, aboot.
canadianbeth
LostCousins Star
Sorry, I have never heard any Canadian say those words like that. That is a myth. A Scot might say aboot, but we do not.
A
At home in NZ
Guest
Sorry but it's no myth because I have been to Canada (twice) and heard it, as I said it's difficult to put what I hear into a word that will sound like what I hear.
Margery
LostCousins Member
In my opinion the Northern Ireland accent has a much harsher sound - Ian Paisley is an example. When visiting the Republic we found that their accent was more melodious, with a sing-song quality.
Bob Spiers
LostCousins Superstar
First rule of thumb: It is next door to impossible to emulate how you think (or actually believe) things sound when spoken by other speakers - like Americans or Canadians - by just the use of 'exaggerated' spellings. You need to use and understand phonetic language symbolisms and those interpreting need to also be able to follow the same symbolism.
On a Tablet I have a program (sorry about that) that works like a Thesaurus, Dictionary, or Crossword aid. When you select a word it gives its definition(s), how it is pronounced using phonetic symbolism (which I cannot for the life of me understand), but luckily it often offers an audio clip of the word in English (Eng), and American (US), and occasionally by other speakers -like SA or CAN. I have rarely used the audio clip as I have little interest in knowing how it sounds when even in my own country there are regional variations and I dare say the English version offers Received Pronunciation. But what I can say with some truth, is that without the sound version I would certainly not be able to deduce anything from phonetic symbols which remind me of Egyptian tomb carvings.
As I said at the start, apart from some obvious emphasis on vowels or parts of a word all you are doing is interpreting how something sounds to YOU and likely a mile away from how it is pronounced by an American or Canadian speaker; or anywhere else for that matter.
It's impossible to lose an Australian accent - I can always tell if someone has spent time in Australia.
I generally used a transatlantic accent when I was talking to Americans in the US because it meant I was more easily understood (if they didn't already know where I came from, they mostly thought I was Canadian). It was simply practical - I couldn't bring myself to use the American pronunciation of words like 'garage' if I was speaking in my usual English accent, but if I didn't I usually wouldn't be understood. I always found it difficult when Alistair Cooke mixed the two in Letter from America.
Susan48
LostCousins Superstar
As far as I'm aware there are two ways of pronouncing 'garage' in British English - as 'garridge', or 'garahzh'. I was brought up to use the latter pronunciation and continue to do so, although the former has, I think, become more prevalent.
For us that was part of the charm of his letters.
Bob Spiers
LostCousins Superstar
You shouldn't get me going on the pronunciation of Garage. Last time my 3 girl Brummie cousins visited (sisters whose first names all begin with J - not that that has anything to do with anything) but they picked me up for sounding 'posh' by saying Garaage (your garahzh). To them the word is Garridge (as you show) and they could not understand how it could become Garaage.
To be fair neither could I and just put it down to be absent from Birmingham for so long (6o odd years) even with fairly regular visits between. I thought it a good job my father was not alive or I would have had a verbal roasting.
Dad was a true Brummie and disliked intensely any (mainly but not exclusively southern) corruption of what he called "Shakespeare's Language". Given the Bard hailed only about 30 miles south of Birmingham, he was probably right. Mind you the pronunciation of 'Garage' is but the tip of the iceberg and there is 'grass' 'castle, 'baby, and a host of other words that separate people in the so called north/south divide.
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Bob Spiers
LostCousins Superstar
A favourite of mine, and as Susan48 says, part of the charm of his letters, and the conversational way he delivered his weekly 'Letter from America' on the radio.
Birmingham was once a village, then a small town with a population of around 1800 in 1547 (Shakespeare was born in 1564). So what we regard as a Birmingham accent is probably a mixture of the accents of those who migrated to the area. Some, no doubt, from Stratford-on-Avon - but given the difference between the accents of Birmingham and Wolverhampton, which are only half as far apart we can only guess how much of Shakespeare's English there is in Birmingham. The rhyming couplets at the end of each scene of his plays provide some clues.
Bob Spiers
LostCousins Superstar
My father's remonstrations about Shakespeare's English(Dialect) being on a par with a Midlands accent had to be taken with a pinch of salt. He even insisted that the expression "It's a bit black over Bill's mother's" - which as a child with a father called Bill I thought applied to the sky looking dark over his mother's (Grandma's) house - could be attributed back to 'Bill' (or Will) Shakespeare. Blow me down years later I even read a learned article (sorry lost in time) suggesting that might well be the route of the phrase, although general consensus seems to be its origins are unknown.
I certainly remember the shock of someone using the expression in Kent and even asked how on earth they knew that saying. They didn't know either just something learned as a child.
As for Shakespeare's rhyming couplets I only recall one from Romeo and Juliet, which I think quite apposite:
"Good night! Good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow. That I shall say good night till it be morrow."